


Still Pretty Cool

by Sparky_Young_Upstart



Category: Stargirl (TV 2020)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Slut Shaming, Team Bonding, parental neglect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24834346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparky_Young_Upstart/pseuds/Sparky_Young_Upstart
Summary: Courtney suggests team boding in order to help the New Justice Society work better together, but Yolanda and Beth don't really have much in common. Or maybe they do?
Relationships: Yolanda Montez & Beth Chapel
Comments: 7
Kudos: 106





	Still Pretty Cool

"I'm leaving," Rick grunted as he stood up to leave.

"Sit down, Rick!" Courtney snapped, and to emphasize her point she tossed the staff towards him. It spun onto it's side and blocked his way out of the basement, inching towards him in an attempt to be intimidating. Rick sighed and threw his hands in the air.

"This is the stupidest thing. I'm not here to make friends."

"This isn't _The Bachelor_ , Rick." Yolanda turned back to Courtney. "And I think Courtney has a point. We don't gel like the old Justice Society did, and one of these days it's gonna bite us in the ass."

"Exactly!" Courtney beamed. "And wouldn't you rather fight injustice with people you actually like?"

"I'd rather get revenge on my own, without you three getting in the way."

Courtney and Yolanda glared at him, but Beth chimed in cheerfully. "Chuck says that the Justice Society was such a great crime-fighting team because they were also friends, and regularly held team-building exercises."

The boy groaned and sat back down. "Yeah, well, we all know what happened to them."

Beth paused, listening to the AI in the goggles. "It had been two and a half months since their last team-building day when they were ambushed and killed by the Injustice Society."

The teens paused, hit by another moment where they realized the gravity of what they were throwing themselves into. Courtney was the first to shake it off. "Look, we fight better when we know each other, and I only really know Yolanda out of this group. So we have to find a way to get along easier. _All_ of us. That's why you," she gave Rick a pointed look, "are coming to my house tonight to study." She pointed at the other two. "And Beth and Yolanda can have their own study group tonight as well."

"Yay!" Beth scurried over to Yolanda, and Yolanda tried very hard to keep the same enthusiasm that she'd had when she was supporting Courtney.

* * *

That evening at the Chapel household, Beth was arranging a wide assortment of snacks. She had several flavours of chips, plenty of chocolates, some fresh fruit, and she even had a bunch of ice cream set aside in the freezer just in case. Her mother entered her room and was taken aback by the large amount of bowls present. "Oh! Hi mom. I'm just setting up for when Yolanda gets here."

Mrs. Chapel nodded. "Right, of course. This is...a lot."

"Well, it's my first time having a friend over so I wanted to make sure I was prepared."

"Of course," Mrs. Chapel agreed. She smiled and held Beth's shoulders. "I'm just glad that you're finally starting to make some friends. I love spending time with you, but I hope you realize that it's important for you to be around kids your own age."

Beth shrugged. "Well, I've always considered myself an old soul. That's why I like hanging out with you and dad! It was always lots of fun when I was little." Beth wanted to keep on praising her parents, but she saw her mom start to get that look in her eye. "But, I'm starting to see the appeal of befriending people outside of my family, and I'm excited to see how that develops!"

Her mom gave a small sigh of relief. "That's great to hear. I'll leave you to finish setting up then."

After she left the room, Beth took a moment to pull out her goggles and pop them on. "How's it look Chuck?"

_< The spread looks wonderful, Beth. I am sure Yolanda will appreciate it.>_

"It's too bad there's nothing I can get for you."

_< That is alright. I am just code, and therefore I do not require sustenance.>_

"I know. But it still felt right to ask you."

_< Your thoughtfulness is noted.>_

Yolanda was there fifteen minutes later. Beth had been waiting at the window to spot her when she arrived, and opened the door immediately after the other girl knocked. "Ah!" she started in surprise. "Beth! You're...fast!"

"I was ready for you," Beth said with a shrug and a grin. "Come inside! We can 'study'." She gave an over-exaggerated wink that didn't fool anyone, but fortunately there wasn't anyone else around to see it.

Beth grabbed Yolanda's arm and pulled her (almost dragged her) up the stairs. When they entered the former's room, Yolanda halted in her tracks. "That...is a lot of food."

"I know, right! I didn't know what kind of snacks you liked, so I decided to get a little bit of everything. I hope you like at least some of it."

Yolanda swallowed some kind of emotional response that she wasn't expecting. "No, it's...it's great. I just...I can't remember the last time I saw so many treats." She sat down by the table that Beth had set up and popped a cookie into her mouth. "Oh wow...these are really good."

"They're from the bakery up the street. I say hi to the owner every morning on my way to school, so he gave me the friends and family discount." Beth sat down and began eating some of the chips in front of her. "Do your parents not let you have sweets?"

Yolanda sighed. "No. I mean, they don't control what I eat but they haven't bought anything like this ever since...well. You know."

Beth nodded. "Oh. Yeah, that wasn't a fun day. I never understood why you got in trouble for that. Obviously you wouldn't leak your own nudes - that's not presidential behaviour."

Yolanda paused. "Yeah. Yeah, you'd think that's the case, but it seems like everyone and their mother - well, _my_ mother - they all think I'm a harlot because I made a dumb mistake and Henry decided to ruin my life." She sighed, then ate another cookie. "It's funny. I didn't want to give Courtney the time of day until she said something similar. I think the two of you are the only people who trust me."

"Well why wouldn't I trust you? You're policies were sound, you excelled both academically and physically, and everyone in your social circle spoke really highly of you." Beth averted her eyes. "I...I actually wanted to be on your election committee, but I was too nervous."

Yolanda chuckled a little. "Really? Beth, I've seen you walk up to total strangers and start talking about the weather or fun science facts. I can't imagine you nervous."

"Ah, well, that's different. You were...you were cool. And you still are! But you were popular, like, the kind of popularity that Henry and Cindy have. I tried talking to them when I was little but even then they would be mean to me, so eventually I stopped bothering with that crowd." She sighed. "I know most people don't like me, but at least they didn't call me names or throw my lunch in the trash or anything. They'd just ignore me."

Yolanda frowned, thinking back to when she was just as popular as Cindy. Had she ever done something so cruel to Beth? No, surely not the bullying that Cindy and Henry and their cabals spearheaded. But ignoring Beth? It was almost a reflex for her. For a lot of people, probably. And she didn't pay it any mind until just now, when it was put in the right context, and she realized that it was the same bullying her family had been putting her through over the summer. Yolanda's throat clenched as she realized the culpability, and she scooted sideways to come closer to her.

"Beth, I'm sorry about the way you've been treated. You didn't deserve that. Heck, I bet we even could have been friends if I gave you the chance."

Beth's smile flared back up, natural and bright. "That's okay! We're friends now, so don't worry about it!"

Yolanda shook her head. "Okay, but if I anybody starts being mean to you, come tell me, alright? I don't care about being popular anymore, which means I can lay them out flat for you. Even if I have to do it to myself."

Beth gasped. "But you'd get in trouble with the school! And your parents."

Yolanda groaned. "My parents don't even know I'm here right now." Beth gasped again, and Yolanda continued. "What are they gonna do? They took away my phone, they grounded me, they barely talk to me. Whenever I go on missions I just close the door and they either ignore me or assume I'm 'praying for my sins'." She balled her hands into fists at her side. "I hate how easy it is for me to stop caring about them, but I have to or I'm going to explode."

"Oh." Beth wasn't sure how to help with this one. She tried really hard to make Yolanda feel better about the photo incident, but this wasn't quite in her purview. "My parents don't talk to me a lot either."

"Yeah, but they still care about you." Yolanda gestured out towards the house. "Your mom wouldn't have lunchtime Skype-meetings with you if she didn't care about you being alone at school. And you bring her dinner at work, right?"

Beth nodded. "She thinks that's a little much, too."

"But she still eats with you! She wouldn't do that if she didn't care about you. My parents...ugh. The night Courtney helped me become Wildcat, I came home and I had this whole speech about how they needed to accept that I wasn't at fault and help them realize how much I miss them, and they barely even heard me."

The two were silent for a while after that. "I'm sorry. I don't really know how to help with that," Beth admitted.

"It's okay. It's just nice having people to talk to about it." Yolanda chuckled. "Well, people other than Courtney. I'm sure she's sick of being saddled with all of my problems."

"She probably doesn't mind. She seems like a girl who helps people for the sake of it. I mean, even if she wasn't on board at the beginning, she still let me keep Chuck's goggles when she didn't have to. I mean, I basically just found them after I broke into her room."

Yolanda raised an eyebrow. "You _broke in_?"

"Well okay, it was closer to conning my way into her house. And her door was open! She should really lock it or keep her super-accessories under tighter security."

Yolanda giggled. "Yeah, that's true. But dang, that girl loves rushing into things."

"That's true!" Beth added, giggling herself. "Hey, do you like ice cream?"

Yolanda grinned. "I love and miss ice cream. What flavour?"

"I have seventeen put aside and I've been saving my allowance, so we can definitely get more if you don't like any of them."

"I think seventeen flavours is plenty."

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally going to be a whole long thing with all of the pairings in the JSA having little moments together, but then I fell behind stuff. Some combos I have no ideas for and others I have better ones that I wanna put in different fics, so it's unlikely I'll expand on this much in the future. Still, I like how this chapter turned out and I've refitted it to be more indicative of what it is.


End file.
